MikeLigalig.com

By June Blanco
Sunday Post

Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado has asked the Bohol Provincial Board to review the tax ordinance of Tagbilaran City and find out if indeed it had submitted the revenue code (RC) to the Board for approval.

  The governor sought the review in the light of the certification of Board Secretary Bonifacio Quirog Jr. that “per records on file in our Legislative Tracking System, there is no Provincial Resolution approving City Ordinance No. RC-001 (An Ordinance Enacting the Revenue Code of the City of Tagbilaran).”

  In a letter to Vice Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera and the members of the Board, Aumentado said the city government has used the revenue code to demand illegally for the provincial government to pay a lessor’s permit as a precondition for the issuance of a mayor’s permit to the occupants – including the Land Bank of the Philippines – of the office spaces in the Provincial Capitol Complex, in violation of the Local Government Code (LGC).

  He said the ultra vires or illegal provision is found in Section 4A.01 (Subsection 16) –for “Operators of hotels, motels, pension inns, drive-ins, dormitories, dwellings and other space for lease or for rent – P360.00.”

  Aumentado said the provision is ultra vires because it runs counter to and in derogation of Section 133 of the LGC which sets common limitations on the taxing powers of local government units (LGUs).

  It says unless otherwise provided, the exercise of the taxing powers of provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays shall not extend to the levy of, among others, taxes, fees or charges of any kind, on the national government, its agencies and instrumentalities, and LGUs.

  The governor pointed out that It is an accepted principle in this jurisdiction that an ordinance is always subordinate to a national law or statute. Thus, the Supreme Court in Primicias vs. the Municipality of Urdaneta, Pangasinan, held that “Whenever there is a conflict between an ordinance and a statute, the ordinance must give way to the statute” (93 SCRA 462).

  He said unless the illegal provision shall be struck down by the Board, “the city government shall have the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of LBP and other occupants of the Capitol Complex office spaces.”

  The city can harass them no end by simply withholding issuance of the mayor’s permit to operate business without the provincial government paying the lessor’s permit required under the revenue code, he observed.

  As a consequence, Aumentado said, if the SP will not decisively act against the said provision, the possibility looms that the present occupants at the Capitol Complex will transfer their business operation to other places which will adversely affect the income of the provincial government and its basic services to our people.

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